Cannon Fodder
by The Hallowed Cat
Summary: 9 years after the island and the war is still raging, a 21 year old Jack Merridew fresh from university joins the army seeking adventure but instead finds only the dark secrets of his past come back to haunt him [JackRalph slash] Chapter 4 up!
1. Jack

9 years after the island and the war is still raging, a 21 year old Jack Merridew fresh from university joins the army seeking adventure but instead finds only the dark secrets of his past come back to haunt him [Jack/Ralph slash] 

Please be gentle with me this is my very first Lord Of the Flies slash, and in fact the first slash I have dared post in a long time, I am a firm believer in setting scenes and building up relationships so don't expect them to have shacked up by the second chapter. 

I am also dyslexic and British (We are the best at everything as one Mr. Merridew said) so I'm afraid there will be some spelling mistakes as my computer isn't equipped with a spell checker for dyslexic Britons. 

I also don't know that much about the army and what life is like in it, what I do know I learnt from my father and from films so I am sorry for inaccuracies.  

Apart from that I hope you will enjoy this story very much.

****

He stood in front of the large grey brick building, looking almost reverently at the posters upon the wall telling him, _him_, that Britain needed him to do his duty for queen and country.

Tell him that he alone could mean the difference between victory or defeat. 

The piece of paper in his hand, his call up slip; fluttered in the gentle wind blowing all around him and he felt almost at peace.

You got a gun in the army, and your own bed, and meals and you came home with medals as a war hero. 

Taking one deep breath Jack Merridew pushed his hair out of his eyes, folded up his call up slip; tucked it tenderly into the pocket of his coat and strode into the recruitment office. 

**

The office itself was simply the foray of what had, until recently been the library, but the war effort had meant the closing of the library it the opening of the recruitment office; all the books had been taken off the shelves and taken underground for storage while the rooms had been turned into offices for those lucky few to unfit to fight or to clever to leave themselves out on the battle fields to enlist more cannon fodder.

A young man with stark black hair in a officer's uniform was sitting behind the librarian's desk writing notes upon a official looking document and mumbling to himself ever so often, once or twice he took off his glasses to clean them.

Jack stood there for as long as was considered polite then coughed, the young man looked up startled; he seemed almost surprised to see someone standing happily and alertly before his desk but then straightened his glasses, lost his dazed expression and stared Jack squarely in the face.

"Hello" He said with the slightest hint of hesitation.

"Hello" Jack returned, he reached into his pocket and drew out the paper.

Wordlessly he handed it to the clerk who examined it and smiling sadly at him shook his head.

"You're the first one we've had in all morning, people just don't seem to care about protecting their country anymore" He laid the paper out, smoothed it flat then stamped it with the certified seal of her majesties royal army "If you just go down the corridor to your left you'll be given a physical, if you pass that then they'll tell you where to go from there" he held out the call up slip for Jack. 

"Thanks" Jack said, talking the paper, refolding it and putting it back in his pocket, he turned to leave when it came to his attention someone else was rushing into the building

.

A person bundled in a long black coat with the collar pulled up high about his neck, his cheeks flushed with colour as if he'd run a long way and his breath coming out in small pants.

A person with fair hair, a mildness around his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil save for lack of sleep recently.

A person Jack had thought not to see again until he died and all the misdemeanours of his past life came back to haunt him.

A person who was without a doubt Ralph. 

TBC

(Sorry its so sort but I have work tonight) 


	2. Ralph

Sorry this is a very short chapter which contains Suicidal Ralph.

**** 

Ralph closed his eyes and gripped the seat as the buss carrying him and the other recruits to the ships, and then off to the front line, bumped up and down on the pothole filled road.

They'd said he'd forget; they'd promised if he went off to the war he would be so caught up in it that he'd forget what had happened on that island.

But it hadn't, if anything the island had come back in the shape of the young man sitting three seats in front of him jauntily smoking a cigarette and laughing with the others.

Nobody wanted to sit with Ralph, he was to cold, to quiet for the others; they all wanted to laugh it up and talk about their girls back home or who'd get his leg over with more foreign girls.

Ralph didn't care for that; and he didn't smoke so they couldn't take his cigarettes off him like they got Jack's, he seemed to have brought enough for the entire front to enjoy and some of the enemy to boot. 

Jack must have been able to feel Ralph's eyes glaring at the back of his head because he turned in his seat and flashed him a winning smile which Ralph looked right through.

"Want a ciggy?" Jack offered, Ralph shook his head and tired to ignore him; but it was too much of a temptation to keep looking, even if Jack had turned back to his pals, so he rested his head against the window and looked out at the war ravaged world instead.

He could remember, before the island, when the war had just began and people had lined the streets to wave off their brave boys and the news had been filled with stories of the lads at the front line.

But now nobody was out in the street and no-one was waving, all the windows were boarded up and the doors shut tight.

All of those brave lads had died; and that was why Ralph was here.

He was going to die as well, and he welcomed it. 

Tbc


	3. Trench warfare

Jack ran the labyrinth of barbed wire, keeping his body hunched down, a smaller target for the enemy that kept firing shots at him.

Jenkins fell in front of him, half his head blow away by a sniper bullet, and Jack ran over his body and to the safety of the trenches, he tumbled down into the mud and filth and stopped for a moment to catch his breath looking up at the grey sky filled with cloud of exploding shrapnel. 

Then he righted himself and continued his hunched run along the trench to the sergeant, the message he'd been entrusted with still secured tightly in his hand, he spared only a thought for the poor bastard who'd run with him and was now just another condolence letter out of hundreds. 

He reached the sergeant out of breath but handed him the letter and saluted before collapsing into one of the small chair set up for the sergeants to sit in.

Sergeant Halton cast him a once over glance before opening the message and reading it quickly then folding it up.

"Where's Jenkins? Resting?" 

"Jenkins is dead Sir" Jack said slowly, the full understanding of that finally hitting him while the sergeants cheerful briskness faded into regret for his words and another lost life.

"I'm sorry, I'll send word back" 

"Yes sir" Jack mumbled, he felt numb. 

Jenkins's was dead, his friend was dead, the man with whom he'd shared his rations and his private thoughts was dead and Jack had walked over his body without a care for it, so interested in saving his own sorry life. 

The sergeant was still talking and Jack tuned back fully lost to what he was talking about

"I'll get a replacement sent up right away"

"A replacement for what?" Jack asked stupidly.

"For Jenkins, we need another message runner and I think I know the one" 

Jack nodded "Very good sir" he said after a pause.

He left the sergeant with his mind made up that whoever the sergeant chose as his partner Jack would have nothing to do with the man, he wasn't going to lose himself another friend on the battle field. 

Better a nameless innocent than someone you knew. 

/*/

He was back with the sergeant less than an hour later and already the trench had gained the solemn quietness that greeted the death of one of its number, people had seen to Jack and told him how sorry they where and he'd thanked them and been oddly quiet. 

And now he stood before Halton again, this time wrapped in one of the itchy grey blankets handed around from time to time and drinking a cup of lukewarm tea while the sergeant addressed him.

"I think I've found the perfect man for the job, agile and not afraid of being in the middle of it" Halton said but all Jack heard was 'I've paired you with some suicidal twat'

"I'm sure you chose the best sir, after all you did chose me" to Jack's surprise charm did not seem to be one of the characteristics affected by the death of a good man. 

Halton laughed "Yes I did, let me introduce him to you" he turned around and went out into the main part of the trench for a moment and Jack drank his tea reasoning it might be all he got for a while. 

Halton reappeared some moments later with a young man around Jack's age who was warring a long black coat over his uniform and a cap pulled low down over his face; Jack remembered that coat.

"Ralph!" he exclaimed rising quickly from the chair and shedding his blanket in the hurry; the young man pulled of his cap and stared at Jack in something between shock and horror.

"Jack…oh god…Jack" 

Halton looked between them and smiled "I see you too know each other then"

Ralph glanced at him and nodded slowly.

"We met when we where at school" he said coldly, his eyes narrowing slightly and Jack realised all at once that it was going to be ever so hard to keep from wanting to stop that coldness, that distance.

And that would mean getting close to someone once again.  


	4. Nomans land

A/N: the joy of inventing a war! You can invent a runners post and not completely stick to historical accuracy! And they are fighting Communist Russia, not the Germans. 

He'd been running the last time, hadn't he? And there had been the smoke blinding him and Jack had been on his heals that time as well.

Only now they where on the same side and running from the commies but Ralph still forced his body to move faster when he could hear Jack's heavy breathing besides him and when they rolled in the trench together Ralph would roll away and lay face down staring at the things that swam, lice and other parasites, in the stagnant muddy water to get away from Jack and his bloody breathing. 

And he slept a bunk away from Jack at the runners post and he couldn't sleep at night because that breathing invaded his dreams and all he could think of was the island and fighting with Jack the night when Piggy died and all he could hear was the sound of the bolder as it collided with flesh and bone and Jack's breathing in his ear. 

People where dying each day. He new this and he'd seen them die, blown apart by bombs or poisoned by mustard gas, pieces of shrapnel or a bullet imbedded in some vital place. 

And he also new he had a dangerous job as a message runner, going across no-mans land to the other trenches with messages about movements of the front line. 

So he shouldn't have stopped, moments away from the trench to try and get one of those bullets imbedded in his head. 

Jack cannoned into him and pushed him the last few inches and down into the mud, crushing Ralph beneath his weight. 

Ralph struggled, against him panicking as his face was pushed further down into the muddy water and Jack grabbed the back of his shirt, laying across his backside to keep him down.

"What the hell where you doing?" he hissed angrily "Do you want to get yourself shot?"

He let Ralph up for air and between coughing and spitting Ralph managed to say "yes!" 

"Why?" Jack hissed again and Ralph was silent for a moment before he began struggling and bucking to attempt to free himself of Jack again; the other man lost his grip and fell to the side of him and Ralph scrambled up.

He stood panting and glaring at Jack "I wanted to get myself shot so I could be rid of you, and rid of this war!"

"Your mad!"

"Why do you care anyway? You didn't care when you killed Simon or Piggy" 

The words hung between them for a moment before Jack pulled himself to his feet, he looked at Ralph just once his eyes filled with unspoken fury  before he turned on his heal and stalked off.

**

 "Jack?" 

Jack ignored the whisper and rolled over to face the wall; he stared crossly at it even when he heard Ralph's feet touch the floor and then pad across to him. Ralph stood next to his bed, arms crossed over his chest and biting his bottom lip.

"Jack?" he murmured.

Again Jack ignored him and continued to inspect the wall, the bed sheet lifted up and Ralph slid in beside him; he didn't touch him but lay next to him with his arms stiffly at his sides radiating heat Jack could feel even as he wiggled away from it.

"What are you doing?" he finally asked when he ran out of bed. 

"I'm sorry" Ralph offered, Jack rolled back over to face him, leaning his head on one hand as he surveyed Ralph. 

Ralph looked at him quickly before turning his head back to stare at the ceiling; Jack reached out a hand and took Ralph's hand closest to him feeling the other man tense up as he did. 

"I'm sorry as well for everything I did then and for yelling at you today; I did like Simon and I didn't mean for ever of them to die" 

"Lots of people are dying now" Ralph said slowly.

"Doesn't make what happened any better"

Ralph looked at him smiling and Jack leant over, grabbing the other hand before kissing him softly; Ralph froze for a few moments before he entwined his fingers with Jack's and kissing him back. 

They broke the kiss and Jack growled, burring his hands in Ralph's hair and kissing his neck "Don't start strolling along no mans land again tomorrow!"

Ralph laughed softly "I wont" 

TBC

Not to happy with this chapter, sex next chapter. 


End file.
